The Other
by Mousie
Summary: Fic: The Animorphs travel to another dimension,


Chapter One 

My name is Jake. I won't go into all of the other stuff, I'm sure you already know, so I'll just begin where this story starts. It was Friday afternoon and we were all hanging out at Cassie's barn. "I don't know they're up to something," Rachel said angrily. Rachel's my cousin. She's tall, blond, and I guess beautiful, but she's my cousin so I don't look at her that way. Rachel is a warrior, she's a great person to have on your side during a fight, but I wouldn't want to have to fight against her. She used to be a lot more reckless, but lately. Ever since the David incident, and I won't go into that. She's changed, become calmer. "Listen Rach, just because they're lying low for a while doesn't mean they're up to something, I mean they could be, but they may just be trying to avoid suspicion for a while." I said, I had to admit it wasn't really like the yeerks to stop and rest, but I could hope, and we all needed the rest, I could see it in the faces of my friends they needed a rest, it was getting to them. Me too I guess, but part of being a leader is taking care of your people first. I never asked to be leader, and don't particularly want to be, but I guess I've come to accept that I am. "Just like Xena, always wanting to jump into everything headfirst eyes closed." Marco joked. Marco is my best friend, has been since we were babies. Marco is always trying to find humor in life, which with the life we lead is really hard, but he tries anyway. Marco is extremely smart, though I would never tell that to his face, his ego is already big enough. Marco is funny, but he can also be ruthless, and he hates the yeerks with a passion, as do all of us. "Shut up Marco, I am allowed to be concerned aren't I?" Rachel snapped. "Guys calm down, you don't need to yell to get your point across. Besides you're frightening some of the animals." That was Cassie. It's her barn that we use for our meeting, less chance of anyone listening in. Her barn is actually a rehabilitation clinic for injured animal, she and her Dad take care of them. Cassie is the peacemaker of the group. She has this way of being able to calm and comfort people without seeming meddling. I like Cassie, I mean really like her. We've never gone on a date or anything, but lately there just isn't enough time for things like that. She was attempting to give a crow with a broken with some kind of medicine. {I have no idea why you insist in saving a crow} Tobias said with obvious disdain. Tobias, is the last member of our original group. He was trapped in the body if a red-tailed hawk on one of our first missions. Though he can morph, the regained power given to him by a being known only as the Ellimist, but that too is another story. {Crows are total punks; they have no respect for other birds} Tobias said ruffling his feathers. "Well here at the clinic we try not to pay attention to the attitude of the animals, and more on just helping them." Cassie said smiling up at Tobias who was perched on some rafters at the top of the barn. {Prince Jake.} A voice said. I groaned. Ax, Ax is an Andalite, we found him some time ago, and he joined our group to fight the Yeerks. He is the younger brother of Prince Elfangor, who we got our powers from. He seems to think that I am his Prince. "Don't call me Prince," I said, my usual response. {Yes, Prince Jake.} Ax said. All of a sudden I saw a bright flash of light. It seemed to engulf the entire barn. Then it was gone. "What was that?" Rachel said. "I was about to ask the same question. Then I heard a voice. "Hey, what are you doing in my barn?" "You're barn?" Cassie said as she turned towards the voice, I did the same. I noticed that Ax had quickly morphed to human, I hoped in time that they didn't see him in Andalite form. There were six kids standing there. Four girls and two guys, they were looking at us as if we had some how intruded. "Hey what are you doing here?" I asked. "What do you mean what am I doing here what are you doing here, this is my barn." Said a medium height, African-American guy walking forward from the rest of the group. "Your barn? Excuse me this is my barn," Cassie said walking up to stand next to me. The guy looked at her. "Hey do I know you, you look kind of familiar." Cassie looked back at him. "I don't think so but you look familiar too." Just then Cassie's Dad, or so we thought walked in. "Chris, who are these people?" He asked. "I have no idea Dad, we walked into the barn and they were just standing there." The guy, Chris, said. When he said Dad. Cassie looked shocked, I guess I probably did too. "Dad?" Cassie asked confused. "Yeah Dad this is my Dad, and this is his barn, now what are you doing here? Who are you?" Chris asked. "I-I don't understand, how can this be your Dad?" Cassie asked looking extremely confused. "What do you mean how can he be my Dad, he just is." Chris said looking suspiciously at us. "Cassie, I did not know-ow, you had a bro-brother er bruther," Ax said walking forward. Ax has a tendency to play with words when he is in human morph, you see Andalites have no mouths they talk through thought-speak. "I don't," Cassie said. "I thought he said that this was his is father, but this is is your r father-ather, is it not?" Ax asked. "Well he looks like my Dad, and this looks like my barn, but different somehow, I am completely confused. Chris as well as everyone else in his group, looked quickly over at Ax when he spoke. "Why are you playing with your words?" The other boy said walking up to us. He was tall and blond with blue eyes, it was strange but he too looked familiar. "He's from another country," I said quickly. "He isn't that great at English." "Oh really," the blond guy said. "What country are you from?" "He's from a country far far far away, in fact I'm sure you've never heard of it, so I'll just take him back here with me." Marco said grabbing Ax's arm trying to drag him back. The rest of both the groups were walking slowly up to our little convention in the middle of the barn. Chris's Dad left, but I really didn't notice, he started heading towards the house. The rest of the people in the other group looked familiar to. Then I realized to my shock, they looked like us, but the opposite gender. "What are you're names?" I asked sharply to the other group. "Hey why are you asking us questions, we should be asking you questions, you're the trespassers." The tall blond guy said. "What are you're names," He then asked. "I'm Jake, this is Cassie, Marco, Ax, and Rachel. I pointed to each of them as I said their names. I left out Tobias, since he was at the moment a red-tailed hawk, and I didn't know these people. They looked a little uncomfortable. A tall dark haired girl stepped out; she looked a little like me. "My name is Jackie, and this is Robert, Maria, Chris, and Ally." Pointing to people in her group. I looked. Ally looked like Ax in his human morph. Chris looked like a male version of Cassie, the same with each of the others, Maria and Marco, Rachel and Robert. After she said that she looked up in the rafters, I looked at what she was looking at, there near Tobias was a hawk, it looked similar to him, but a little different. {Jake, what is going on here man?} I shook my head slightly as to say I didn't know, but not to attract attention. Just then four adults walked into the barn. "Okay, now what is going on in here?" A short black woman asked. It looked like Cassie's mom. "Is this one of your little, umm.. you know things?" She asked, I noticed that she didn't exactly say what this little thing was just hinted at some kind of secret. "Prince Jake?" Ax said. "Don't call me 'Prince' I whispered quickly. "Actually I do not-ot, think that is necessary-ecessary-y. I believe that we have traveled to another dimension. "Another dimension?" I asked skeptically. "Yes, I believe so too-oo" A voice said, I looked, it was Ally. "Oh man, another dimension?" Marco wailed. " Geez, I handled dinosaurs, veleeks, tiny little ego-maniacal aliens, Xena, alternate dimensions, what next?" "What! Excuse me, why was I entered in that little list of yours?" Rachel demanded. {Ummm..Ax-man that might have been a bad time to explain you're theory. There are well parents or something here.} Tobias said from high in the rafters. "Who was that? Maria asked. "Tobias, " I said shortly. "Why wouldn't you talk about it in front of us?" One of the adults said, I looked it looked like, my mom. "Yeah what is going on in here, alternate dimensions, I thought it was just aliens." Well, I guess it was Chris's mom asked. I guess they hadn't gotten I good look at us yet, otherwise they probably wouldn't be so calm. "Umm, you know maybe they should leave," I said. "Why would they leave?" Jackie asked, "I mean it's not like they don't know about us." "What? Know about what?" I asked her suspiciously, I mean who were these people, I mean I accepted the fact that we were in another dimension, too many strange things have happened that I couldn't not believe it. "Prince Jake, I do not believe you understand completely. We are in another dimension, and these people right here, I believe are us, our, shall I say doubles." Ax said, without repeating sounds either, but that wasn't what was foremost on my mind. "Wait, you mean these people are us? They can't be the genders and numbers aren't, oh man, you mean these people are us, but with like the opposite gender?" I asked. "Yes, that is what-wha-ta I believe." He answered. I looked at Jackie. I couldn't believe it his was me in another dimension, and as a girl. I have seen some strange things but I was starting to think this would surpass them all. "Wait so, that is me? As a guy?" Rachel asked pointing at Robert. "Yeah Rach, I guess that is you, as a guy, and that's me." I said tiredly, nodding toward Jackie. "Maybe we should step outside" Jackie's mom said. Oh man I had forgotten that they were there. Did we just blow the cover for them? We walked outside into the fading sunlight. I could see more people coming out of the house, it looked like all of out parents, but there were three more people, and one of them was Tom. 

Chapter Two 

(Cassie) 

I looked over at Jake; he looked a little shocked. "Jake?" I asked. "It's tom," he said. "If these people know about the morphing and the yeerks, then why is Tom here?" He asked. I had no idea. I was still trying to get over the fact that I was actually in another dimension. "Okay so you know about the Yeerks, and all right?" Rachel said to the parents that were there. "Yeah, we know." Chris's father said. "How? I mean, how did you find out?" I asked. "We spied on them." Chris's mom said with a smile. "We thought something strange was up with them, we thought it was drugs or something. We never in a million years expected what we found out though. We confronted them with it, they had no choice but to tell us." "Umm. I have a question, why are all these people here?" Marco asked. "Once a month we make all the kids tell us what's been going on, we in no way want them to do what they're doing, but we can't stop them, so we at least want them to tell us what's been going on." "Yeah so why are these kids here?" Rachel asked. "They're my brothers, and Jackie's brother Tom, I guess they have a right to know too, but they don'' get as graphic of an explanation." Robert said. "Brothers?" Rachel asked. "Yeah brothers," Robert said. "I guess you don't have any brothers." " No, I have two sisters though." She replied. "So, that would mean you have an older sister instead of an older brother, right?" Jackie asked Jake. "No, I have an older brother, Tom." He said. "Ax, that doesn't make sense though. I mean if everything is switched around here. Wouldn't Tom be a girl in this world?" "I don't know, but I have noticed that your parent's genders have not been swapped, at all. I was not paying attention when we studied, inter-dimensional phenomenon in school. I was, distracted." He said. Just then, the rest of the people from the house reached us. There was so many people gathered around I felt suffocated. "Jeez, I can't breathe," Marco said, voicing my thoughts. My mind was in a tumble everything was so confusing. "Okay, we've established that we are in another dimension, and these people are in a sense us, and not controllers." Jake whispered to me. "Just a minute, we need to talk for a second." Jake said pulling everyone from our group away. "Ok, we need to decide what to do here." He said. "Can we trust these people? I accept that we're in an alternate universe, with all the evidence. But I need to know what you guys want to do." "Well, if they were yeerks, we'd probably already be dead, or at least have a dracon beam pointed at our head on the way to the yeerk pool." Marco said. "I don't know, I just have a feeling like we can trust them." I said. "Ok, vote time." Jake said. "Everyone for trusting them, raise your hands, wait Rachel first go get Tobias." Rachel disappeared into the barn and reappeared a few moments later with Tobias perched on her arm. "Tobias we-," Jake started. {I know, I could hear you guys} Tobias said. I wasn't surprised; hawks actually have very good hearing. "Ok who wants to trust them?" Jake asked again. I was a little surprised when everyone agreed. "Ok, well lets go find out what's going on then." Jake said turning towards the others. "Okay, we've decided to trust you. We have no idea what's going on, but at the moment you're our best bet." Everyone looked at us curiously. "Why don't we go sit down somewhere and then try to explain." I said. We walked over to a grassy spot on the lawn and sat down. "I feel like I'm at camp or something, okay everyone storytime, grab a spot." Marco said. Rachel gave him a dirty look that said. Could you possibly be any less funny? "Why don't you guys start?" Jake asked the AU animorphs. "Ok," Robert I guess it was shrugged. Then they started their story. "Well, we were walking home form the mall one day, through this abandoned construction site, when this spaceship landed. Inside was Prince Elfangor, he was badly hurt, but he decided to give us the power to morph. I won't go into details just the basic stuff. So he gave us the power, and then Visser Three killed him. Over the next few weeks our parents noticed something was changing with us, so they spied on us. They heard us talking about the Yeerks, and everything and confronted us with it, we told them, we had no other choice. They weren't happy about it, but they couldn't stop us from fighting. By then Tabby had been trapped in Hawk morph." Robert said motioning toward a blond girl that looked like Tobias who had just joined out little meeting. "A couple months later we found Ally, and we've been fighting the yeerks ever since." He finished. It was brief, but it sounded very familiar. "Then why don't you tell us about each of yourselves, then we'll tell our story." Jake said. "Well my name is Jackie. I have an older brother Tom, me and Robert are cousins." Jackie said. "I'm Robert, Jackie's cousin. These are my little brothers. Jordan and Sam." He said pointing at the two younger boys who looked like Rachel's' sisters. "My name's Maria. I guess there's not much to say. I love with my Dad. My mom died about two years ago." I noticed that she gave everyone a look with that last remark. I assumed that her mother was also Visser one, and her father didn't know. "I'm Chris, and this is my farm you're on, well actually it's an animal rehabilitation clinic." Chris said. It was so strange looking at him, a male version of myself. "My name is Tabby, I live with Ally in the forest. I'm a hawk, though obviously I can still morph." Said the expressionless girl. "I am Alliximillia-Esmarrouth-Imisthil, otherwise known as Ally. I am an Andalite. Prince Elfangor was my older brother. They found me in the dome of my ship, crashed at the bottom of the ocean." She said. "Now it's your turn," Maria said to us. "The first part of our story is the same as yours, we were walking home from the mall, and cut through the construction site. And met Elfangor, he gave us the power, and then was killed by Visser Three. We fought the yeerks, and Tobias was trapped in hawk morph on our first trip to the yeerk pool. A few months later we found Ax. Our parents don't know about us though. No one does, well no humans do." Jake said. "You're parents don't know?" My mother's double said. "How do you explain everything though? The absences, late nights, everything?" She asked. "We've become very good at lying. It isn't so difficult if you do it all the time. I think they just assume it's us being teenagers or something." I said bitterly. "Well, I'm Rachel. Jake's my cousin. I have two younger sisters, Jordan and Sara. I live with my Mom. My parents got divorced, and my Dad moved to the other coast a little bit ago." Rachel said. Breaking the silence that had started after my remark. "Marco's my name. Live with my Dad. My mom died about two years ago." Marco said. Giving his brief words about himself. "I'm Tobias, I live in the forest with Ax. Nothing really left to say. I guess." Tobias said. " I am Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. I am called Ax. Prince Elfangor was my brother. I live in the woods, behind Cassie's farm with Tobias." Ax said, stumbling over some of the words. I guessed it was my turn. "I'm Cassie. This would be my farm in our dimension. It's a rehab clinic there too." "Wait I have a question, none of you're parents know, but wouldn't you have an older sister in you're dimension. Does she know?" Tom asked Jake. Jake just looked at him hollowly. "Just a minute and I'll explain. I'm Jake. No I don't have a sister. I have an older brother, his name is Tom too, but I can't tell him what we are, because I guess unlike here, my brother is a controller." Jake said, looking at the Tom of this dimension. Tom paled. "You mean, I'm a-a controller in your world?" He choked out. Jake nodded. "We have to be extra careful about that too. Tom's a pretty high ranked controller." Jake said. There was silence for a minute. "So do you want to know how we got here?" Jake asked, changing the subject. The AU animorphs nodded. I tried to explain this part. "Well we were just having a meeting in my barn, and all of a sudden there was this bright white light that seems to encompass everything and then we were here. Not much I guess but that's what happened." I said. "Hey, are those you're bags?" Chris asked. I looked around. There stacked up against the barn were six duffel bags. All of my friends got up and walked toward them, so did the AU animorphs. Our names were inscribed on the sides of the bags. Cassie, Jake, Rachel, Marco, Tobias and Aximili. On top of the bags was a note. Jake picked it up and read it out loud. "Animorphs, I thought you could use a vacation. You will be in this universe for two and a half weeks. Don't worry. You're parents believe you are on a school trip. I took the liberty of sending some important items with you. Oh yes, Tobias and Aximili. You two will be morphs capable humans for the duration of the trip. But remember the same rule applies the human forms will be your bodies, you must not stay in any form for longer that two hours otherwise you will be trapped. Your Hawk and Andalite forms will be as any regular morph. The Ellimist." 

Chapter Three (Jake) 

"Ellimist," I groaned. I couldn't well I guess I could, believe it. Why couldn't he just mind his own business? "Great, he decides we need a vacation and sends us dimension hopping!" Marco yelled. "If he thought we needed a vacation he should've just sent us to Fiji, or Mexico, maybe the Bahamas." "Didn't you already say that, Marco?" Rachel asked. Marco just shrugged his shoulders in the universal sign of I don't know. "I don't suppose he put keys to some hotel rooms in there? Where are we supposed to stay?" Rachel asked. "You could stay with us." I heard a voice say. I turned around it was Chris's mom. "I don't know there are six of us, that's a lot of house guests." Cassie said. "Well, we could split you up, some go here some go there." Robert's mom said. "Well I guess it's that or we camp out in the woods." Marco said. Rachel made a face at that suggestion. "Ok, I guess." I said. I didn't really like the notion of splitting us up, but there was nowhere else to go. "Ok who goes with who?" Cassie asked. We talked about it for a while and decided that I would go with Robert, Cassie would go with Jackie, Rachel would go with Maria, Marco would stay here with Chris, Ax would come with me, and Tobias would stay here with Marco. I grabbed the bag with my name on it and stared walking toward the house. Cassie caught up with me. "So what do you think about this?" She asked. "I don't know, it's so strange seeing myself as a girl." I said. "I know." "Hey, have you noticed something about Marco and Rachel's doubles?" She asked me. "No, not really." I said. "What?" "Well look at them now." She said. I looked over they looked awfully close, in fact I think they were holding hands. "You think they have something going on?" I asked. She nodded. I almost burst out laughing. "So who gets to tell Marco and Rachel?" I asked. She started giggling. "They will have heart attacks. Rachel will probably throw up." She said between laughs. That was it I couldn't hold it back anymore, I burst out laughing. "Hey what's so funny?" Jackie asked coming up to us. "Nothing it's just, just that," I couldn't finish. "You'll find out, you'll probably hear the scream all the way to your house." Cassie said, smiling. "Okkayy, well we should probably go." She said to Cassie. "Hey, I'll call you later okay Jake?" Cassie said to me. "Ok, see ya," I said smiling at her. Then I turned around and headed toward Robert. "Hey you ready to go?" He asked me. "Sure." I said. We went over to his mom's car where she was waiting with Robert's brothers; I grabbed Ax, got in and drove off. "So are you really my cousin Jackie but from another dimension?" Jordan asked me. "Yeah, I guess so, weird huh?" I replied. "Yeah, If I went somewhere where I was a girl, yuck that would be really gross." Sam said. "Well I guess it's not really me that's a girl it's someone else. So that's not as bad, but you know. In my dimension, you are a girl. My cousin Sara, and you're my cousin Jordan there." I said nodding to each of them in turn. "Why is my name Jordan there, that's not a girl's name." Jordan said. "Try telling her that, me and Rach used to tease her about that when she was little, she would get so mad." I said. "Rachel, that my brothers double right?" Jordan asked. "Yup, my cousin." I said. "So you fight the yeerks too, in your world right?" Jordan asked. I nodded. "I wish I could fight too, but Robert and everyone says no." He grumbled. "Believe me, you don't want to fight." I said. "Why not?" He asked. "I have seen some of the most horrible things you can imagine. My life is a complete nightmare, you don't want that." I said. I let my tone tell him that I didn't want to talk about it anymore. "So tell me about your friends." Robert said from the front seat. "About Rachel, or everyone?" I asked thinking that maybe he wanted to hear about his 'double'. "How about everyone?" He replied. I thought about it. "Well Marco, my best friend. Is probably one of the most annoying people in the world, when he chooses to, and he has complaining down to an art form. Half the time I have to hold Rachel back form strangling him, but he's actually very smart. Don't tell him I said that though, his head doesn't need to get any bigger." "I don't understand, Marco doesn't seem to have an enlarged head." Ax said. "It means he has a big ego." I told him. "Let's see. I didn't know Tobias very well before all of this. I stopped some guys from beating him up, and I guess he decided that I was all right. He's a little quiet, but let's his opinion known too. It was hard at first, but he came to accept his life as a hawk. I don't really need to tell you about Ax, since he will be staying with you. Cassie's the peacemaker of the group. She also has the highest sense of morals I guess, and willing to accept people despite all of their faults. I guess if you really needed someone to talk to someone who would just listen to you she'd be the one to go to." I guessed that now was a good a time as any to talk about Rachel. "Of everyone I guess I would say that Rachel is a warrior. She's reckless; she's gotten better now though. If you're ever in a fight Rachel is probably the best person to have on your side. She's extremely brave, if she's scared she hardly ever shows it. It's hard to explain everyone, you have to know them to get even a small sense of who they are." "What about you? What's your role on all of this?" Robert asked. "I don't know you'll have to ask the others, I can't really describe myself. Later you'll have to tell me about all of you're friends." I said because we were pulling into the driveway. "Sure," he replied getting out of the car. His mom popped the trunk, and Ax and I got out and grabbed our bags. We walked up to the door and went in. It looked a lot like Rachel's house, but different, I guess because there were three boys living there instead of Rachel's mom and three girls. "Ok, you can bunk with Robert in his room, I'll pull out two air mattresses. I suppose you two are hungry?" Robert's mom asked. I nodded, I hadn't realized how hungry I was, I guess inter-dimensional travel gives you an appetite. We went upstairs and put our bags in Robert's room. We when we went down stairs, Robert's mom (Naomi) told us she had ordered a pizza. Then Jordan came in. "Jake, it's Rachel, she sounds really mad." "What? Okay give me the phone, please." I took the phone and put it up to my ear. "Rachel?" I said. "I can't believe this!" She yelled. I had to pull the phone away from my ear. I saw Ax and Robert look up, puzzled. I guess they heard her. "Rachel calm down, stop yelling. What happened?" I asked. "Me and Marco, well our doubles or whatever are going out in this place. I am never going to live this down. I think I may throw up." She groaned. I couldn't help it I burst out laughing. "What! Are you laughing at me, Jake?" She asked, outraged. "Yes, me and Cassie, we-we though yo-you might have thi-this reaction." I managed to get out. "What!? You knew and you didn't tell me? I am going to kill you, you could've warned me. I am never speaking to you again, I'm your cousin how could you keep this from me, Jake!" She yelled. Then she said bye and slammed the phone down, I guess she went to call Cassie, unless this was her second call. After that I managed to calm down my laughter. I looked up; Ax, Robert and his family were staring at me like they thought I had gone insane. "Prince Jake? Are you all right?" Ax asked. "Don't call me Prince, and yeah I'm fine. I guess Rachel just wasn't too happy about certain things here." I said. "What certain things?" Robert asked. "Nevermind, I'll tell you later, but I suspect Marco may be calling in a little while." I said. Then the doorbell rang. "Whoo-hooo pizza's here." Sam said running to answer it. Naomi followed behind him with the money. Minutes later she came back through the living room with some pizza boxes, headed towards the kitchen area. We followed behind her. She set the boxes down and we grabbed some plated and filled up. "Ax, two pieces okay, just grab two for now you can always come back for more, you don't wanna get sick, remember the cinnamon buns?" I told him. "Yes, Prince Jake-aku, two pieces-ez-z." He said. "Don't call me Prince," I said. "Yes, Prince Jake," "Hey why does he call you Prince Jake?" Jordan asked. "Yes, I've noticed that, what's it all about?" Naomi asked. "Don't ask me, I'm still trying to figure that out myself." I said jokingly. "You don't understand? Its because-" He started. "Ax, I know okay?" I told him. "They don't." I motioned toward the others. "Jake is my Prince." He said simply. "I've gathered that, but what does it mean?" Robert said. "He is the leader, I follow him." Ax said. "Why, did you draw straws and he won, I mean how did you pick the leader?" Naomi asked. "I don't know, that is just who he is, the leader. Perhaps one of the others would be able to say better, maybe Cassie." He said. They all looked at me. "Hey, we should eat. I'm starving." I said, uncomfortable with the conversation. "OK, hey Mom can we eat in the living room?" Robert asked. She thought about it for a minute. 'Okay, but don't spill, be careful." 

Chapter Four 

(Cassie) 

It's so strange I thought as I looked like Jackie, she really did look like Jake. Their personalities were similar from what I could tell; though hers had a female touch, toned down. She was serious, but not as serious as Jake. She had the whole responsibility thing down, but not the way Jake did. What was really strange was looking at the female version of something that I, that I really liked. It was later that day and I was at their house, eating dinner. It was right after Rachel had called. She wasn't happy about Jake and mine's little discovery. It made her even angrier though that Jake and I hadn't told her, she already knew that we knew, so I assumed she had called Jake first. I knew she wouldn't hold the grudge for long though, even if she had threatened never to speak to Jake or me again. Anyway I was eating dinner with Jackie and her family, which was very disturbing. "So Cassie, what are we like in your universe?" Jackie asked. "You as in your family or as in," I trailed. "How about us as a family, I'd like to know what I'm like in an alternate universe." Her dad said with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Well in my world, you are a Doctor," I told Jackie's dad, " and you're a writer." To his mom. "So far I guess you're personalities seem very similar. I guess I don't know the real you very well, but you did play basketball, and you were very good. You quit though I guess yeerks have better things to do than play." I said to Tom. After my comment about Tom being a controller there was an uncomfortable silence. Tom broke it. "So I'm pretty good, huh? I guess I'm okay, well here. I'm on the team, but I'm not really the star or anything." I smiled. "Yeah, Jake used to brag about you all the time. Before." I said. "What am I like, well Jake?" Jackie asked. I thought about it for awhile. How could I tell them about him without revealing my personal feelings, for some reason I didn't really want them known? "Jake is very serious, but he also has a good sense of humor, I mean Marco is his best friend. It would be hard to be really good friends with Marco without a sense of humor. He's someone you can trust in a sticky situation you turn to him. He's-" I searched my mind for the right words. "I understand, I would have trouble trying to put my friends into words too." Jackie said. I was relieved. We just talked for a while. I told them about the rest of the Animorphs as well as I could. The phone rang as we were putting away our dishes. It was Jake. Jackie handed me the phone. "Hello?" I asked. "Hey Cass, it's me," Jake's voice answered. "Hey I was wondering, have you had time to look through you're bag yet?" He asked. "No, I haven't, why?" "Well for one thing the Ellimist put a lot of money in mine, and I was wondering if he had done the same for you." "And the other thing?" I asked. "I think I got your bag." He said wryly. "You got my bag? How do you know it's not Rachel's?" I asked, surprised. "Well the first thing I pulled out was a purple bathrobe and it's too small for Rachel, and since I knew that the only one who would be wearing the color was one of you, since it's fairly small I assumed it was yours." He said. "And the rest of the things are the same way?" I asked. He gave an affirmative. I told him I would go look at the bag I got, and call him back. I hung up the phone and went into the living room where I had stashed my duffel. Everyone else was in there watching television. "Everything okay?" Jackie's mom asked. "Yeah, but I think there may have been a mix-up with the bags. I got my duffel, and unzipped it. On the top was a small bag I pulled it out, it was filled with money. "Whoa." I said impressed. Then I searched further. Next I pulled out a blue robe. I stood up and held it against me. It had to be Jake's it was too large to fit anyone else. "Well I guess there was a mix-up in mine and Jake's bags." I said. "I'd say so, you'd look like a little girl paying dress-up in that." Jackie said. "Yeah I don't think Jake was too impressed when he pulled a purple robe out of his bag. But while I could still wear this, he would look a little strange in my bathrobe." I smiled at the picture, Jake wearing a lavender robe many sizes too small. "Well it's too late now to bring it back, he'll be able to borrow something form Robert." Jackie's Dad said. I nodded. I brought the bag up to Jackie's room where I would be staying. For the rest of the evening we watched television and talked. At about 9:45 Jackie and I headed upstairs to change into our pajamas. I borrowed a pair of hers. It was a little chilly though, so as and afterthought I grabbed Jake's robe. It was way too big. The sleeves hung down past my fingers and it trailed on the ground, on the other hand it was warm. We stayed up until about 10:30 talking about un-important things then went to bed. I slept on an air mattress in her room. I woke up the next morning at 8:15. Jackie was already up so I went downstairs to look for her. She was eating breakfast with her family. "Hey Cassie, hungry?" Jackie asked. "Yeah," I said and grabbed a bowl and filled it with cereal. "We're supposed to meet the others at 9:15." Jackie told me. "In Chris's barn." I ate my breakfast and as I was going upstairs the doorbell rang. "I'll get it" Tom said. I heard the door open and the faint voices of people talking. "Hey Cassie, it's for you." I walked to the door, stumbling slightly over the edge of the long robe I wore. It was Jake. Just great, why does he always have to show up when I'm looking my worst, covered in animal poop, half-asleep? "Hey Cassie I thought you might need this, and I kinda wanted to put on some clothes that actually fit." He said coming into the house. I blinked, he was holding a duffel bag, and wearing clothes that were a little small. Long enough, but not wide enough across the shoulders or chest. Great, I thought, he shows up in tight pants, and tight everything, still managing to look good despite, or maybe because of it and I look like something form night of the living dead. "Thanks," I yawned, and stepped forward to get the bag, and tripped right onto him. "Hey watch out, isn't this a little big, oh" he said, catching me. "Not fair, you could wear my clothes and it would be socially acceptable, but if I tried to wear your purple robe, I don't think I'd get a very good reaction." I blinked at him again. He leaned down and peered into my face. "Hey, you're still half asleep aren't you?" He said. "Yeah." I said. "That obvious?" "Nah, but I know you," he replied. Then he asked Tom, "could I use the bathroom, I kinda want to change into some clothes that fit." "Sure it's-" Tom started. "I know where it is." Jake broke in. "Oh yeah you live here in your world, or whatever." Tom said, he was studying Jake. Looking for resemblance I guess, curiosity. "Hey I'm going to take a quick shower and change, if you want to wait I'll hurry otherwise I'll just see you there." I told Jake. "I'll wait, if that's okay with you." He said, asking Tom. "Sure," Tom replied. "Ok I'll go get your bag." I said to Jake. Then I turned and went upstairs to grab it. When I had gotten the duffel, I went downstairs to give it to Jake. As I was handing it to him Jackie's parents walked in. They looked very startled to see Jake standing there, the male version of their daughter. "Oh, he-hello," Nikki, Jackie's mom, said. "Hey Mo-, hi" He started. "It's a little strange." Jake said. "Uh, I'm just going to wait for Cassie here if that's all right." "Sure that's fine." I turned up and went to take my shower, and Jake went to change into some clothes that fit. I quickly showered and dressed. Jake was sitting in the living room talking with them when I got down. "Hey," I said coming into the room. "Hey Cassie, ready?" Jake said. I nodded. He was changed into clothes that actually fit him now. "Are you coming with?" Jake asked Jackie. "Sure," She said getting up and following us. "I'll be back this afternoon okay?" She called to her parents as we walked out the door. "I need to stop back at Roberts okay? Drop off this and pick up Ax." Jake said holding up the duffel bag he was holding. We started walking then. "So have you noticed any major differences here?" Jake asked me. I shook my head. "You?" "Not really." We walked all walked in an awkward silence the rest of the way. Ax and Robert were in the driveway when they got there apparently Robert was trying to teach Ax how to play basketball, needless to say neither of them was good, at all. "Oh man, Ax. Please tell me what you are doing." Jake said, wincing. H really likes basketball and probably took this as a personal offense. "I am playing basketball, Prince Jake." Ax said. "Don't call me Prince and Ax, basketball?" Jake said. "Yes Prince Jake. This is basketball is it not?" He asked. "I guess." Jake replied to him. Then he looked at his watch. "Well we should probably get going." The guys stopped their game and Jake put his bag in the garage then we headed toward the meeting place. We walked in silence, except for Ax who was mumbling sounds under his breath, fascinated. It was about twenty after when we got there, we were five minutes late. 

Chapter Five 

(Cassie) 

We were the last to arrive at the meeting. The others were spread around the barn. Chris taking my usual job taking care of the animals. "So nice you could make it." Marco said. We walked inside and sat down in various spaces, me next to Jake on one of the bales. "So what are we supposed to do?" Rachel wondered outloud. "Hmm, let's see relax maybe? No of course not, no rest for the mighty Xena ah I've got it let's go fight other universe yeerks see how there different." Marco said sarcastically. "I think you bumped your head on something on the way here Marco. Your jokes have done the impossible they've actually gotten lamer." Rachel shot back. Tabby, who was in human morph laughed. "They've taken Chris and Jackie's spots." She said. "Huh?" Marco said. "Chris and Jackie fight all the time, they can't stand each other." Tabby replied. Marco raised and eyebrow. "Well, yet another huge difference. I think this one is even bigger than the whole gender thing." He said. Then to Jake and I he said. "I mean I don't think you guys have ever fought really have you?" "Of course we have," Jake said. "So back to Rachel's question, what are we supposed to do?" "Nice change of subject." Marco commented. The other Animorphs looked confused at the conversation exchange. "Who knows, I thought you were the cruise director Marco." Tobias said. "Yes, well first stop is the mall see the lovely display over there, smell the enticing aroma of new clothes and fast food." He said mimicking the announcers on television. "Wait, we can't even go anywhere, I think someone would notice the similarities between us and them." I said motioning to our counterparts. "Great, I get two weeks vacation in an alternate dimension and instead of cruising around checking all the backward sites, I get to stay in some smelly barn." Marco complained. "Is it possible for you to be positive or will you go into some kind of convulsion if you don't complain at least every five minutes." Rachel demanded. He looked thoughtful. "I don't know, it would be an interesting experiment. Actually no it wouldn't." He replied. I rolled my eyes, Jake saw and smiled "Okay, well this is all incredibly interesting but I am so bored." Marco groaned. "Well then how about you make it more fun for us and go find something to occupy yourself with." Rachel said. "Xena stabs me once again." Marco said. "Sounds like a good idea to me." Rachel mumbled. "We could go to the beach." She said louder. "Oh yeah the beach." I said. The beach was not exactly my favorite place. "I get to sit there completely bored while guys stare at you, flirt with you and basically drool on you." I said. She just laughed. "Hardly Cassie." She said. "Well there is this one beach that's basically inaccessible except by air and boat." Jackie suggested. "You would have to climb down a cliff to get into the cove. We could lower the stuff down and then morph and fly down ourselves." "Sounds great to me. I want to wear the swimsuit the ellimist packed for me." She said. "Why?" I asked. "Because I like it, and I'll never get to wear anything like it again, my mom would have a heart attack if she ever saw me buying or wearing anything remotely close to it." She grinned. "Great. I hope I got something decent." I said. I was imagining all the horrible swimsuits I could get. "So when should we go?" Maria asked. "How about now?" Chris replied. "Sounds good to me, we have half a day left." Rachel said. "Okay, everyone goes and gets the stuff they need and meet at my house soon as possible." Robert said. "Okay," I said. We all left to go our ways. "So why don't you and Chris get along?" I asked Jackie when we when we were walking. "I don't know really. He gets on my nerves with all of his questions about morality and goodness, and I think the way I question everything annoys him." She said. I wonder if that's the way Jake feels. I thought, but his self-doubt doesn't annoy me, so maybe it's just another difference. I tried to put it aside but it still worried me a little as we walked to my temporary home. "Hey girls." Nikki, Jackie's mom, said when we got there. "Hey mom, we were going to head to the beach. That okay with you?" Jackie replied. "Yeah that's fine, try not to stay out too late though." Nikki answered "No problem," Jackie grinned and we went upstairs to change. Oh my God, I thought as I looked at the swimsuit. "Oh, no." I moaned out loud. "Come on it can't be that bad," Jackie said with her head in a drawer looking for her suit. "Yes it is, look at it." I said holding it up. She turned around. "Well, uh it's a good thing we're not going to a public beach you'd have to fight the guys off." She laughed. I looked at the suit in dismay. It was a foamy sea green, bikini. With a very small top and a small bottom. "I think I'll probably fall out of the top." I whispered. "Nah," she replied. "Go try it on, hey look it comes with this cover up," she said holding up a see through frothy skirt of the same color that would tie around my waist. "Oh that'll help a lot." I said sarcastically. I grabbed the suit and went to the bathroom to change. I feel practically naked; I thought when I put it on. I walked back into the room. "Hey it looks great," Jackie said when she saw me. "I feel fat," I said. "You are not fat at all," she said rolling her eyes. She had changed into her suit, a one-piece blue and black speedo. "Well lets go," I said pulling on some cut off short and a tee shirt over the suit. I wish that she had another suit I could were but this was it. I put the practically non-existent cover up in a beach bag that we had stored some stuff in. We left and walked quickly to Roberts. "Hey you guys ready?" Robert said answering the door. "Duh, if we're here I'd say we were ready." Jackie said to her cousin. He rolled his eyes and let us in. It appeared that we were the last ones since everyone else was in the kitchen. "Hey Cassie lemme see the suit." Rachel said to me when we walked into the kitchen. "No way," I replied. "Come on I'll see it at the beach anyway." She pleaded. "I don't know if I'm going to get down to my suit this is just fine." I replied. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She said. I rolled my eyes, "Rachel you love your suit." I told her. "I'm your best friend," she said. I nodded. "Okay fine," I said. I walked into the bathroom. I peeled off my shorts and shirt. "I love it!" She crowed. "I'm practically naked." I muttered getting back into my clothes. "Jake is going to have a heart attack," Rachel said gleefully. I groaned inwardly, Sure being in this swimsuit was okay in front of girls, but guys? Yeah right. Then she showed me her suit that she had covered up with a light sundress. It was a deep blue with triangle shaped pieces for the top. I laughed. "Forget about what Jake will do, Tobias will probably pass out." I said. She grinned wickedly, and put the dress back on. I was still giggling a little when we went back into the kitchen. I could just see the look on Tobias's face. "Don't you love her suit? My mom would bust a vein or something if I ever wore something like that." Jackie said sighing. "We could switch." I offered. "We aren't the same size, too bad." Jackie said. "Shopping trip!" Rachel crowed. "Uh, Rachel the point is not to make people suspicious." I said. "No problem we go to a mall a ways away. And you are coming with Cassie, you have no choice." Rachel said. Of course Maria, Ally, Tabby and Jackie all thought this was a grand idea. This is a living nightmare I thought. 'Save me' I mouthed to Jake. He just shook his head and laughed. I sighed. One day the beach the next the mall. I am not a beach person, and I am not a mall person. This was not my idea of a good vacation so far. "Hey if we got these suits, what kind did you get?" Rachel asked wickedly. "Speedos?" Jake and Marco shuddered Tobias looked grateful and a little queasy at the same time, Ax had no idea what was going on. "No thank God. Regular trunks. We're gonna have to put on morphing shorts over the suit when we morph though otherwise they'd be too baggy." Jake explained. "Now is everyone ready?" There was a chorus of half-hearted yes's, and a little more enthusiasm from Rachel, Jackie, and Robert. "Okay let's go then." He said. Ally and Tabby had borrowed suits, which is why there wasn't an extra one for me. We grabbed our bags, a small cooler and a length of rope we were going to use to lower the stuff down. It took about twenty minutes to walk to the spot. "This is it," Jackie said. I looked over the cliff to the water. It was a beautiful beach, the water perfect not too wavy but not all calm either. Marco morphed to a seagull and flew to the bottom along with Ax and Tabby. They would untie the bags from the rope so we could get the rest down. I noticed the other Animorphs watching Ax and Tobias morph. I felt the same as I watched Tabby; it was strange seeing someone outside our group morph. When they were all the way to the ground and settled. We tied the rope to the cooler and lowered it. We got all the bags down. "Okay our turn." Rachel said. "Cassie you're gonna have to put your outer clothes in that last bag you know." She grinned. "I know," I shot back. Everyone peeled off their outer clothes and stuffed it into the last bag. With a sigh I took off my shorts and shirt and out them in the bag. I heard a choking sound, and the sound of Rachel laughing. "I told you so Cassie." She said. I turned around Jake was standing there looking at me a little stunned. My face flamed. "Chris this is really gross, but you make a pretty hot girl," Robert said. "I wouldn't be talking," Chris said back. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my seagull morph. When I was finished I flew down to the beach. Marco Tobias and Tabby were down there waiting. The stuff was spread out next to them. The others landed beside me and we began to demorph. I saw Tobias staring at Rachel when we were finished; I almost laughed at the look on his face until I saw Jake looking at me with the same expression. Marco whistled. "Who needs baywatch." He smirked. Rachel took a swing at him, but he ducked in time. We spread our towel on the sand and everyone put on their various sunscreens and tanning oils. Rachel lay out on her towel, as did Jackie. The rest of us headed for the water. I put my foot in. "It's cold," I complained. "Oh don't be such a baby," Jake said. "Baby? I don't see you in the water." I said. He smiled and waded in, dunking when he got further out. Everyone splashed into the water. I looked at the water then I looked back at the beach where Jackie and Rachel were tanning, which was the lesser of two evils? I hate the beach. I stood there for a few minutes watching everyone in the water. Then Jake made the choice for me. He waded out of the water towards me. "Jake come on I don't want to get in." I said. Backing up. He didn't stop. I turned and started quickly up the beach, unfortunately he was faster than I was. He came up behind me and grabbed me around the waist. "Jake!" I shrieked. He laughed and carried me towards the water. "Stop!" I cried. "No way, the waters fun get in." He said. "You aren't really giving me a choice here." I said. I could hear Marco and the others laughing. He brought me out and dropped me. I came up sputtering. "That's it this is war." I said. "Water fight!" Marco yelled. Rachel and Jackie came down from the beach. "Trust Xena to come running to any kind of fight." Marco said. Rachel dunked him. People were grabbing legs and pulling each other under everywhere. I laughed. This was the most fun I'd had in a while, no worries. I could forget about the yeerks and everything for a while. I grabbed Jake's shoulders and tried to push him down. It didn't work. "Come on, is that your best shot?" He asked. I pushed on the backs of his knees and they buckled that along with the push on his shoulders sent him under. As he was going down he grabbed me and pulled me with him. I pinched his shoulder and he let me go, I went back to the surface and breathed in deep. He came up behind me laughing. My friends were laughing as well, but I noticed the other animorphs had a peculiar look on their faces. I looked for a minute then shrugged it off. "I'm going to go get a drink and some chips." I said and headed for the shore. "I'll come too." He said, and followed me. I walked to where my towel was and laid down on it. "Can you grab me a pepsi and some doritos?" I called to Jake. "Whatever you wish Queen Sheba." He teased. I waved my hand royally and he handed me the pop and chips, then sat down on his own towel next to mine. "So did you have fun trying to drown me?" He asked. I laughed and nodded my head. "Well it's so nice to see you concerned with my safety." He said dryly. "If you had been down there too long, I'd have saved you." I replied. "My hero." He answered. I rolled my eyes and lay back munching on chips. "It was fun though, forgetting for a moment." I said. "Yeah," he echoed. "They were looking at us a little strange. Did you notice that?" He asked. "Yeah," I replied. 'Why?" "No idea, I get the impression that our doubles don't get along very well." He said. "I know." I replied. "So what are you guys talking about?" Chris asked, coming up. "Oh nothing." I said. "If I'm on vacation I'm going to rest." Jake announced lying back on his towel. I did the same. We lounged on the beach all day. Getting into the water every once and awhile. Talking to the others, and doing kid things like making sand castles and burying each other in the sand. "Well I guess it's time to go." Maria said looking up at the sky. We agreed and got up packing up the bags and stuff. Then we did the reverse of when we got here. Ax, me, Rachel and Jackie flew up to the top and hauled the stuff up, while the others loaded it down below. We started back toward civilization then. "Well come on Cassie you have to admit that you had fun today." Rachel said. "Yeah, I had fun." I allowed. She nudged me. "I thought Jake was going to pass out when he saw you're swimming suit. He could hardly keep his eyes off of you the whole day." She whispered. I blushed. "Not." I said. "Really, Marco waved a hand in front of his face once to see if he was still aware of the outside world." She giggled. I hid a small smile. So Jake had liked my suit, that was something new. Mostly our relationship was just emotions and talking, actual attraction was something new, well showing it was something new anyway. "Well you should have seen Tobias then." I said. "I did." She whispered, then giggled. I laughed with her. I saw Maria and Robert veer away from the others, I assumed he was walking her home. "There goes your roomy." I nodded toward them. She made a face. "I can get there all by my very own self. I definitely don't need to see anything kind of like me and Marco doing anything well, romantic in the least." She said. She paused at the next street. "Well here's where I turn." She said. "I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" She said. "Yep, bye." I replied and she walked away. Marco Tobias and Chris left next. Then we reached Jackie's house. Jake and I waited outside while she went in. 'Why don't you go ahead Ax," Jake said, and Ax left as well. When he was out of site, he turned to me. "Sweet dreams." He whispered. Then he leaned down and kissed me. I slid my hands up around his neck and kissed him back. We stood there for a few minutes until we heard Tom's voice call out. "Cassie? Are you still-, oh uh. We were just wondering if you were okay," tom stuttered and went back into the house. I looked at the house. Jackie and her parents were looking out the window with shocked looks on their faces. Jake groaned. "Well this is going to be difficult." He said. "Not to mention uncomfortable," I muttered. "I'll see you tomorrow." He said, touching my cheek then he turned around and left. 

Chapter Six 

(Jackie) 

[Note- I decided to do this chapter from the perspective of one of the alternate universe animorphs. To see what they, or at least one of them is thinking of our animorphs. I hope you like it.] 

I walked back up to the house leaving Cassie, Jake and Ax behind. I went inside and set my things by the door. "Mom, Dad. I'm back." I called. "Hi, did you have fun?" My Mom asked. "Yeah." I replied. "Where's Cassie?" My dad asked. "She's still outside." I replied. Something about today had bothered me. Well, maybe not bothered, but it was strange. Seeing how they acted compared to my friends. Like Rachel and Marco fought all the time while Robert and Maria practically never seriously fought, they're completely infatuated with each other. The closeness between Jake and Cassie, while Chris and I couldn't stand each other. "She's been out there for like five minutes." I said a moment later, snapping out of my thoughts. "I'll get her." Tom said and opened the door. He started to yells something, then stopped and kind of sputtered. I saw my parents look confused and they went to the window to see what was going on, I looked out with them. I couldn't believe it. There were Jake and Cassie kissing on the other side of the street. I saw them break apart and look over at us. They immediately looked mortified. They said something to each other, then he touched her cheek and left. Now this was going to be strange I thought. My double, kind of, his girlfriend or something like it was staying with us. It probably shouldn't have felt so weird, but it did. I could see that the rest of my family felt about the same way. A few moments later Cassie came in through the door slightly out of breathe. She looked at us all standing there. "I- uh. Um well I. I'm going to go change." She managed then fled up the stairs. I looked at my parents, they looked at me and then at Tom. "This certainly puts a new spin on things." Tom said. I felt like hitting him. "They're not old enough to do things like that. They're the same age as you Jackie and you're absolutely not old enough." My mother said. "Fifteen mom." I said. I went up the stairs to change out of my suit. It made me so angry when they said things like that. I was too young to date? Well I was too young for a lot of things that I do. Sometimes it's like they know what we do, and yet they don't. They delude themselves about how we do things. True, we don't tell them everything, but sometimes you'd think they would be a little more perceptive. I walked into my bedroom. Cassie was sitting on the bed. She looked up at me when I came in. "I have never been so embarrassed in my entire life." She said. "Cassie, it's okay really. A little well, strange but fine." I said. I could see how she felt. Her emotions might as well been written on her face. "It was like getting caught by his parents." She groaned then shuddered. "God I would absolutely die." She said. I imagined that, getting caught kissing a guy by his parents. "Well it wasn't his parents so you have nothing to worry about." I said. She sighed. "Thanks." "Well I'm going to change and then its dinner time." I said and went into the bathroom with a change of clothes. Cassie was still waiting in my room when I went back. "Ready to go downstairs?" I asked. She mumbled a negative under her breath but followed me anyway. My parents and Tom were at the table when we went down. Cassie looked at them and then looked away. "So Cassie, you didn't tell us tha-, Ow!" He started then ended in a yelp when I elbowed him in the ribs. "Okay, I get the point," he muttered. I smiled at him and asked him to pass the rolls. He glared back and handed them to me. We started dinner then. Spaghetti, and meatballs with rolls and various foods that go with spaghetti. "So what did you girls do today?" My mom asked. "Oh, nothing much." I said. There was an uncomfortable silence. "So, what are you planning to do tomorrow?" My dad asked. "Well we don't really know." I said. We ate for a while in silence. Cassie was the first to finish. "Uh, you know I'm kinda tired, I think I'm going to go to bed early." She said and bolted. I sighed and we finished our dinner, with a little more conversation. Cassie was already asleep when I went upstairs so I decided not to bother her, besides I was going somewhere and she was not invited. About an hour later I opened up my window and an owl flew out, headed for Chris's barn where the others would be waiting. Maria was the only one not there when I arrived, and she was seconds behind me. "So what's up?" I asked when I demorphed. "Nothing. So what do you all think of these Animorphs?" Robert asked. "They seem fine to me." Chris said. "To me as well," Ally seconded. "Yeah I know, they seem completely normal. And yet what if they're not? What is they're with the yeerks, then that means we're in serious trouble." Maria said. "They do seem fairly normal. And I don't want to distrust them, but we have to protect ourselves. You can tell them things but not too much," I said. {Uh, it's too bad they could really help us too,} Tabby said. "Well they have their own yeerks to battle." I said. "Maybe," Maria warned. "Well at least we made this quick," I said looking at the clock that was hanging up in the barn. I morphed to owl and flew home, lost in my own thoughts, if I'd been paying more attention I would have seen the other owl that flew into Cassie's window just before I landed in mine. I woke up late the next morning, Everyone else was already up, and dressed. I showered and changed quickly and went downstairs. Cassie was watching Tom play video games, not the most fun thing in the world from the look on her face. "Tom did you even give Cassie a chance?" I asked. He looked at me, like Why in the world would I do that, but handed her the remote. She looked at it for a minute then took it, setting the game over so it would be on an easier level. "Might as well, maybe I'll be able to beat Jake someday." She said laughing. "Marco and him are so into video games Rachel and I think that they're going to turn into vegetables sooner or later." She played for a while, doing all right, but still a little clumsy with the controls. She handed them back to Tom after a while who resumed playing. "So what should we do today?" Cassie asked me. I shrugged. "Do you think Rachel was serious about going to the mall?" I asked her. She laughed. "Rachel never jokes about the mall." She said. "Ok, Why don't we call her and see?" I said. She nodded her head and I called up Maria's house. "Hi, Maria? So was Rachel serious about the mall thing?" I asked. "Yep, she's been bugging me all morning to call and ask you guys when you're ready." She said. "Ok, well we'll have to go out of town obviously." I said and gave the name of a town about 35 minutes away that had a nice mall. "Ok, why don't you call Chris and have him get Tabby and Ally, they'll probably want to come." I said. She said ok, and we hung up. I asked my mom and she said she'd drive us. They were going to be her for two weeks, we had to go back to school next week, what then? I ignored my pessimistic thoughts and waited for Maria and the others. They came about a half-hour later and we all piled into the minivan and my mom drove us to the mall. She handed me a bus schedule. "You can take the bus home," she said. I nodded and tucked it into my purse. We walked around for a while until Rachel saw a store. "Cassie, come on, I want to see if they have that one outfit." Rachel said towing us into the store. I assumed she meant an outfit for herself but she pulled out something and crowed "Perfect!" It was not the right size for her at all, but would fit Cassie I thought as Rachel shoved it at her and spun her towards the dressing rooms. Cassie protested but she was ignored. It was a great outfit. Tight hip hugging black pants with a black top that showed her midriff and a white sheer long sleeved shirt that went over it. Rachel had great taste in clothing. She made Cassie get the outfit, which she had looked great in, and then proceeded to pick out clothes for the rest of us like a general, snapping out orders. Tabby and Ally demorphed and remorphed in one of the dressing rooms and we went on to the next store carrying our purchases. "Ok, next we got o," she started, looking around the mall, she spotted something and said. "There." And we were off yet again. "I'm starting to understand why you hate shopping with her," I mumbled to Cassie. She just gave me a pleading look that said. Save me. We stopped in front of bath and body works; they sold body oils, and bubble baths and all kinds of good smelling things. I picked out something that smelled like mint and Cassie picked out a soft lavender that suited her perfectly, at Rachel urgings. She looked at Rachel strangely. "Are you trying to tell me something?" She asked. Rachel shook her head and laughed. "No, it's just you're actually listening to me for once and I'm taking advantage of it." She said. Cassie shrugged and we left. This Ellimist really had been generous I thought, he/she/it had given the girls a ton of money. Rachel made Cassie get shoes to match her outfit. Then we went to the food court and got something to eat. Cassie and Rachel were watching Ally as if they expected horns to pop out of her head. I looked at her, a little strangely. She must have seen it because she said. "Ax is completely insane around food." She explained. "He eats anything. Paper plates, popcorn boxes, engine oil." She said with a grimace. Ally sniffed. "Males. They have much less control." She said. I laughed. "Sounds like us." I said. "Rachel I have no idea why you're making me get all this stuff. I mean there is a line." Cassie said to Rachel. "Yeah but just think what well someone will do when they see you all made up. If the swimsuit was bad, you should see yourself when I'm finished." Rachel said, and I knew they were talking about Jake. Cassie looked at the others; they had no idea they just looked confused. "So which one of your guys is it that," Maria trailed. Cassie looked at little uncomfortable. "I know Rachel how about you tell them about you know," Cassie said brightly. "Well this conversation is over, let's go check out some more stores." Rachel said hastily and stood up. We followed her and spent the next few hours shopping. "Where am I going to wear all this stuff?" I wondered. Cassie snorted. "I have no idea, about mine either. Rachel will figure something out though." She said. We were sitting on a bench waiting for the bus that pulled up at that moment; we climbed on and sat down tiredly. I sat in silence through the trip. Rachel, Maria and Ally talked and Cassie fell asleep. We got home about 45 minutes later, we had to walk a little ways back to my house. We had been at the mall all day. I looked at the clock; it was 8:45. Tabby and Ally stashed their things in my room and everyone except Cassie left. We ate a quick snack and went to sleep early. I woke up about 2 in the morning when I heard a thump. Then I heard Cassie scream, it was a horrifying sound. Filled with terror and pain. I got up and went to her room. My mom was already in their having woken up at Cassie's first muffled cry. Cassie was awake and shaking. "I'm fine thank you," she said to my mom. My mom patted her cheek and left. Cassie looked at me solemnly and I felt a chill. "Something is very wrong," she said. "I should call Jake." She got up and went downstairs to the phone. I dialed in Robert's number and handed it to her, hoping Robert or one of the boys would answer. "Can I talk to Jake?" She asked a few seconds later. "Jake, Crayak." She said simply and that one word sent a shiver of uncontrollable fear down my spine. 

Chapter Seven 

(Jake) 

"Jake, Crayak," Cassie said. A chill went down my spine. Crayak. "How do you know?" I asked. "I dreamt about him, he's here Jake. Well, not exactly here, but he's coming." She said. "How can you be certain?" I asked. "Jake, I just know, you have to trust me." She said desperately. "I believe you," I said, and it was true Cassie had no reason to lie about something as important as this. "Well do you know when he's coming?" I asked. "No, I just know he's coming. With howlers." She added. I was confused. "Howlers?" I asked. "I thought be got rid of them." "No, not yet. Crayak said six months from then, it's been what? Two?" She said. "So why is he sending them, we beat them once before." I said. "Yeah, but remember we had the Iskoort's memory transfer thing, we don't have that now." She said. "Call the others. I'll take Marco, you call Rachel. Meet here, in the backyard as soon as possible," I said, and hung up. "What's going on?" Robert's mom asked. I jumped. I hadn't realized someone was standing there. Jordan had been sneaking a snack when the phone rang. "Nothing," I said. "Seriously Jake, what's going on?" Robert asked from behind her. "Nothing," I repeated. This wasn't their fight, no need to involve them in it. "Seriously, what's the matter maybe we can help." He said. I shook my head. "You can't." I said and went upstairs to wake up Ax, then we went out into the back to wait for the others. Rachel came first, followed by Tobias and Marco, and lastly Cassie. "So what's this all about?" Marco demanded. "Cassie, tell them." I said. She sighed. "Crayak is coming. I don't know exactly when, but he's coming. It won't be for at least another day. I get the impression that he can't exactly go back and forth quickly like the Ellimist sent us." She said. The others looked pale; we all remembered our last encounter with Crayak. It had been horrible, not an experience we wanted to repeat. "How can you be sure?" Rachel asked. "I don't know, I just am. He told me, it's like he wants us to know he's coming." She replied. "More fear. It's not enough just to show up, he has to have us anticipate him, not knowing when he's coming, just that he's coming." Tobias said. "Well, I'm guessing he's not exactly thrilled with the whole Iskoort thing." Marco said sarcastically. "Gee, you think?" Rachel retorted. I pinched the bridge of my nose; I was getting a major headache. "The thing we need to know, is what exactly he's going to do when he gets here, and why he's coming. I mean he could've easily just zapped us away in our own universe." I said. "It would have been much simpler as well," Ax added. "Right when we get a vacation," Marco said almost to himself. "What about the others, I mean Jackie and everyone?" Cassie said. "We're putting them in danger with this." She said. "Maybe that was part of the plan, a little extra help?" Tobias suggested. "This isn't their fight." I said. "I agree," A voice said from behind me. I jumped a little, and heard Ax mutter about inferior human senses. Robert was standing behind me, along with Chris. "You spied on us," Rachel said angrily. "Of course we did, and you should have told us anyway." Chris said. "Never mind." Rachel said. "I don't think so, this concerns us, I think you better tell us what's going on." Robert said. Rachel started to say something again, but Cassie stopped her. "Rachel he's right, this does have something to do with them." "Fine, we'll tell you, maybe you should call the others." I said. "We're here," Tabby said, coming out from behind the shed with the others. "Well, shall we sit?" Marco said rather sarcastically. We sat in a shape slightly remembering a circle in the cold, wet grass. I could feel it soaking into my boxers, which I realized, was the only thing I was wearing besides a t-shirt. Everyone else was in their morphing suits except for Ax, and Robert. I started. "It began about, a year maybe a year and a few months ago. We found out that the yeerks were infiltrating a wing of the hospital." I began. "We of course decided to stop this, so we sneaked into the hospital, into this one room. In the middle was a hot tub, at first we figured it was used for rehabilitation or something, but when we opened it up, it was really a mini yeerk pool. The cords on the side had been cut so no one could change the temperatures." The other animorphs looked interested, but confused. "I wired it back together, knowing that all the settings would be on maximum, it would fry all the yeerks in the pool, but as I was finishing someone found out we were there. Cassie and Ax were ready, but I was human, so I hid behind the tub. The controllers started firing, real guns not dracons. As I was standing up I got grazed by a bullet and fell face first into the pool." I explained. I could see the dawning horror on their faces. "One yeerk survived, for a while anyway. I was a controller. Luckily Ax noticed something, and they held me for three days in this little shack in the woods. Everything went relatively fine," I said, even though nothing about it had been even slightly fine. "The yeerk died from Kandrona rays, but when he was leaving my head something happened. It was like my vision changed. I could see in things, all the sides like another dimension of perception. And I saw him. Crayak, he looked like a big red eye basically, but I knew that wasn't all he was, he was evil. And he saw me too." I said, and fell silent, waiting for someone else to pick it up. Cassie did, after a moment of silence. "About two months ago, Ellimist came to us. He explained about Crayak, the rest of us had no idea he even existed, but he had been bothering Jake, nightmares and stuff, it was like he had it in especially for him. Ellimist told us about a race of aliens. He needed to save them and Crayak wouldn't let him, they knew they couldn't fight one on one, the last time they had destroyed a large part of the galaxy doing it. So they picked teams, Crayak had his seven and Ellimist had his, us along with Erek." She said. They nodded, they knew Erek. "Crayak's seven was a team of Howlers. We agreed to try and help and he sent us to the Iskoort homeworld. The Iskoort weren't exactly a likeable species, they were annoying and loud, and well anyway. That doesn't matter now, we figured out why the Ellimist wanted to save these Iskoort, you see the Iskoort people are two parts, Isk and Yoort, they're symbionts." She said. I could see the realization on their faces and the disgust. "You saved them! Yeerks?" Robert practically yelled. Cassie shook her head. "They aren't yeerks. You see the Iskoort are true symbionts, the isk cannot live without the yoort and vise versa, and this is why we knew we had to save them, because can you imagine if one day yeerks and Iskoort met? They're could be a new way, the isk were created, not conquered." She said passionately. They were stunned. Ally was nodding almost imperceptibly. Then Rachel picked up. "There was a problem though, the howler's were basically unbeatable. One of them pretty much took down all of us practically killed Jake. But we found a way. The Iskoort had these devices. They could like photo copy your memory and transfer it. Now by then we had realized something. They had a collective memory, and they had sold memories for weapons. Erek downloaded the memories, and nowhere in the memories was a memory of defeat, and we knew this was impossible, no one can win all the time, it's impossible. So Jake came up with this idea. There had to be some defeat, but the Crayak had probably eliminated that or those, howlers before it could infest the collective memory. So we downloaded our memories, all of them onto one of the devices." She said, and stopped, letting Tobias pick it up. "Jake had gotten a howler morph and we would use that to put the thing onto one of the howlers, but when he morphed it he realized that they weren't evil. They were kids, they lived three years, and it was a game to them. They didn't understand that the people they were killing, the races they had destroyed were real people. People that felt, that hoped and loved, and laughed. They hadn't any memories of these things, only of killing. By then it was too late though, we had to do it or be destroyed. So we got the memory transferor onto a howler and all of our memories went into him, and in turn the rest. Crayak did exactly what we thought he would do; he got rid of those howlers before our memories could influence the whole. Apparently one memory got through though, and Ellimist told us that in six months it would change them, instead of killing this one race, they would try and kiss them, then the Crayak will have lost his troops. I don't think he knows this, but we beat him, his howlers so he definitely doesn't like us." Tobias finished. They sat back absorbing it all. Robert looked angry. "So you come here, and he follows. Putting us all in danger!" He yells. Rachel immediately took offense. "Hey you think we wanted to come! We're sitting in Cassie's barn then zap we're in some alternate universe, where I'm a guy! And worse yet I am going out with Marco, of all people's double! I don't think so. It's not like we asked for any of this either, okay!" She yelled back. "Rachel calm down," Cassie said quietly. "Hellooooooo," I heard familiar voice call. "What the hell!" Rachel called out. I turned around. Standing behind me was the Drode. Crayak's little pet. "Are you scared yet? Are you are you? Oh I do so love the smell of fear. You should be, oh yes you should. Crayak will get you. Yes he will. Oh Ra-chelll, have you though about my offer lately? One little swipe and Jake would be dead, and you'd be free, free and safe!" He called. I stopped, confused. What was he talking about. "No actually I haven't, like I said before. No Deal." Rachel replied smartly. "Maybe you will reconsider, but probably not, silly human morality and emotions." Drode said and disappeared. "What was that?" Ally asked. "Crayak's little pet. Rachel what exactly was he talking about?" I asked Rachel. She had a murderous look on her face. "The whole deal with the Pemalite ship. The first time we met him. He said that if I killed you, he would take me away and I would be safe with the Crayak." She said. I stared at her for a minute and she stared back. "Of course I basically told him to go to hell," she said. Just then I heard a great thundering crack. I looked up. The sky had grown ominous, a bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens I heard a wailing in the distance. I shivered and looked around me. Everything seemed so quiet, dead almost. "Something's wrong." Cassie said. We looked at each other and everyone raced for the house. We went into the living room. Robert's mother was sitting on the couch, frozen. "Crayak," Tobias whispered. I heard the noise again, it was more of a keening howl. I froze, I knew that sound. "Howlers," Marco said. We went outside, I could see them coming up over the rise. I counted 12 in the dimness. 12 of them 12 of us. Trying to make it fair? I thought bitterly. "We should run." Cassie said rather calmly. "Run?" Rachel exclaimed. "I'm not running from anything." "Toward the water, they might be more vulnerable there. We know we can't beat them in one on one combat, maybe we'll have a chance in the ocean." Cassie explained. I thought about it for a moment. "Ok, let's go. Morph birds, we'll fly it'll be faster." I ordered. Everyone, including the alternate animorphs began morphing. As soon as we were done we flapped out wings and rose into the air. The whole world was quiet it seemed. There was no noise except the crack of thunder and lightning. I could see cars parked in the streets not moving at all. We flew in terrified silence to the beach, with hope that it would help. We landed on the sand, and the rain began. Horrible gusts of howling wind swirled around us, the rain pelted us. We started towards the water. A great burst of light stopped us. Then a presence, a presence of pure evil, Crayak. I don't think so. He said. We quivered in fear. I think it's time for you to die, little Jake. "Why?" I yelled. "Why me!?" I cried into the night. You do not even know what you will do, what you will become, and who you are. Fool! You are not worthy of your destiny, a destiny that I will not allow to happen. I will however, give you a chance. It is in the rules. He said, sneering on the last word. Thoughts whirled through my head, my destiny? We will play a game, your friends will be the players. You will face a fear, your greatest fears. If they survive so will you. Now, you have a choice, will you play, or will Jake die? Crayak asked, addressing the others. I wanted to yell no, but my voice wasn't working, I fought against it to no avail. "I'll play." Rachel said viciously. The others followed behind her, even the alternate animorphs. I wanted to scream, they wouldn't win, not against Crayak, the rules wouldn't be fair. Why hello again Cassie. Are you having fun? No I didn't think so, well I have something extra special planned for you. I think you'll like this, little Jake. He said with an evil laugh. I looked panicked at Cassie. She looked back at me, fear apparent in her eyes. I reached for her and pulled her toward me. I fought against the Crayak' bind on my throat. "Don't die, God, Cassie don't die. I'm sorry. I love you," I managed to say. She clung back. "I love you too," she sobbed, then everything went black, and I fell back into a swirling black vortex. 

Chapter Eight 

(Rachel) 

I saw Jake hug Cassie tightly and whisper something in her ear; she clung back tightly and said something back that I couldn't hear over the howling winds. Then Jake vanished. Cassie stumbled as his support disappeared. She looked over at me with a shocked look on her face. Then everything went black. When I opened my eyes I was in my house. I wasn't alone either. I saw my mom, and my sisters, and myself. I walked slowly around the kitchen where they were sitting eating dinner. I waved my hand over my sister Sara's face. Nothing, she couldn't see me. "Hey mom, can I sleep over at Cassie's tonight?" I heard myself ask. My mom nodded, not saying anything because her mouth was full. "I'm going to go pack now, and head over okay?" I asked. "Yeah sure sweetheart," My mom replied after she swallowed. I saw myself get up and walk upstairs. "God, I don't wanna go on this mission." I heard myself mutter. She walked into my room and opened the window. She began to morph. I was too, I realized with a shock. When she was finished she flew out the window and I followed. We headed downtown. I didn't recognize this mission; it was a work of fiction. We landed in an alley; the others were still there. "Well this certainly is fun. I could be at home watching the X-files, but noooo, instead I have to be living it." Marco said sarcastically. "Well if you're too scared I guess you could wimp out," 'I' purred. He scowled, I knew what would happen, he'd go in anyway. "This is definitely not one of the Yeerk's more glamorous entrances." Cassie muttered. "I know, but this is the only one, without one of those bio-scanner thingamajigs." Jake answered. I saw them share the secret look that wasn't so secret. It was the same as before any mission. Marco and I arguing, Jake and Cassie making eyes at each other. Tobias and Ax talking amongst themselves. "Well, it's time." Jake said. I saw them all disappear into the pothole he opened. I wrinkled my nose in distaste, but followed. I saw them slide into the entrance and morph. Then it began, the screams, the terror, the blood, roars, and cries of battle. I saw them fight, and suddenly I was feeling everything the other Rachel was feeling, then I was she. I was in my grizzly bear morph. Fighting off the oncoming Hork-Bajir, roaring I slashed at them, thrilling in the feel of battle, trying to bury my fear. Then I saw him, Visser Three. I felt the same disgust, hatred and absolute terror I felt every time I saw him. Then as I watched in horror, he began to morph into some hideous creature. When he was done he laughed. An evil, vicious laugh. I saw him spit some kind of acid or venom, he simply spurted it out into the crowd, not caring whom it landed on. I saw the victims writhe in unimaginable pain. I heard them scream, bloodcurdling screams that must have left there voices hoarse if they're bodies weren't fizzing away in the liquid. I felt fear; I felt undeniable, insuppressible terror. And then I ran. I turned around and ran away, back up the stairs. I could hear my friend's death cries. Jake's final mighty roar as he leapt onto the Visser, then the hideous yowling as he was covered in the acid. I heard Cassie's howl, Tobias's screech, Marco's bellow, and Ax's dying prayer, and still I ran. I left my friends to die in that hell of a yeerk pool. Then I was alone, sitting in human form on a chair; there was a table in front of me. On the table were a knife and a gun. Do it Rachel, you failed them, you let them die, you COWARD! I heard Crayak yell. I buried my head in my hands, and screamed. Then I was back where I had started in the kitchen watching as I asked my mother if I could sleep at Cassie's. And I watched it over and over and over. And I ran away over and over and over. And each time he gave me a choice. 

(Aximili) 

I watched as Prince Jake and Cassie embraced. Then he disappeared and she turned with a look on her face that I could not read, human emotions were very complex, but something about this one was very powerful. Then everything went dark. When I awoke I was on my home planet. I saw my parents, and I saw my older brother Elfangor, but he was dead in reality. I started to run to my family. Then I turned around, before me stood my human friends. Prince Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Marco, and my shorm, Tobias. I looked at them, then at my family. Then both at the same time. This was very confusing. What was the battle in this? There was no danger, no fear. I saw a shadow fall across the land. I looked up, a Visser's blade ship! I watched in horror as thousands of soldiers fell from the ships. I looked about; opposing them was an army of Andalite foot soldiers. I could see the space battle flash across the sky. I saw my human friends begin to morph, as the yeerks forces spilled across the land. Then the battle began, it went on for so long, and I fought and fought and fought. Swap! Swap! I saw Andalite's fall, and I saw controllers fall. Then I saw Him, Visser Three. Visser Three was in front of me, my family to the side, Prince Jake and the others on my other side. Behind me was an army of Hork-Bajir. I could avenge Elfangor! But, Elfangor was right there. I thought confused. But I had to choose one, my Andalite people, avenging my brother, or staying and fighting alongside my human Prince and friends. I had to choose one. I chose I lunged, then I watched as the others were destroyed. {NOOO!} I cried silently in my head. Then it began again. And with a horror I realized what he was doing, he was destroying us yes, but he was going to drive us mad, so that we would destroy ourselves. But there was no choice the battle was beginning, and I fought and fought and fought. And I grew more tired; there was no rest for me. And each time I had to choose. 

(Tobias) 

The wind howled, lightning flashed across the sky, I could hear the mighty roar of the ocean. I saw the others, Jake disappeared then everything went black. I was in my field, sitting on my favorite tree, but I wasn't human I was a hawk. The air was calm, I could hear the scratched of prey in the swaying grass. I looked around warily, trying to figure out what kind of game Crayak was playing. Nothing, I was alone in my field save the other animals. Then I felt something that horrified me, I felt myself disappear. Not my physical self, but everything that made me who I was, Tobias disappeared. My conscience and mind were smothered. The hawk instincts took over and everything went dark. All of a sudden I awoke. I was sitting in a tree, but not the one I was in before. I was confused. I was next to a house; I looked into the office closest to me. I looked at one of those little calendars, the ones you change everyday. Five days had passed, I felt fear wash through me, what had happened? How could I just forget five whole days? Then with a shock I remembered the Crayak's evil game. What was this? Lost time, how could that be part of the game? Then I was on the ground, and I was morphing, but it wasn't me morphing, something else was making me morph into my human shape. When it was finished I tried to demorph, I realized with a panic that I couldn't, I was trapped! I walked along warily. "Hey?! What are you doing here? Get out of my yard!" I heard someone yell. I waved my arms in panic, trying to fly away from the danger. I realized quickly my mistake and turned around and ran out of the gate. I was standing in the street of a suburban neighborhood. I looked down at myself; I wasn't wearing my morphing clothes, just a regular outfit. Confused Tobias? You don't think this is frightening do you? Well perhaps your deepest fears are the ones you cannot recognize. You can't be both you know. Human and Hawk, one or the other Tobias, choose. You really think that Rachel would want a hawk? Who would? But can you be human, never able to fly again? CHOOSE! Crayak yelled. I chose, I chose Hawk. Then I was in a room, people were yelling at me. Then I saw Rachel she was looking at me with disgust, then she turned and walked away, and still they yelled and yelled and yelled, then it began again, and again he made me choose. 

(Marco) 

All I saw was darkness, then light. I looked around I wasn't anywhere that I recognized. Then I heard something; it was my mother's voice. She was pleading with someone. "No please please, just have mercy, please. You don't need me anymore, just kill me, kill me please!" I heard her cry. My stomach shriveled in horror. I heard a returning voice, Visser One. "Foolish human, you think I will release you, I have need of this body. It has served me well, and you no longer put up much of a fight." It sneered. Then I was away again. I was aboard the underwater vessel the first time I had seen my mother face to face after the 'accident.' Except it was different this time. She knew I wasn't a controller, she knew I was an Animorph. She was holding a dracon beam on me. I wasn't a human either; I was in my gorilla morph. "Hello, Marco. Little Marco, it's me Mama, you couldn't kill your own mother could you?" She purred. And then she began to sing; she sang a song that pierced me deep. It was a lullaby. The song my mother sang to me when I was little to get me to go to sleep. She would kill me I knew, if I didn't kill her she would kill me. Could I kill her? If it came down to it could I kill my own mother? No, I couldn't, I couldn't kill her to save myself. Then I realized I wasn't alone. Behind me were my friends, all chained to the wall, they couldn't morph, the spikes surrounding them would impale their changing bodies. I couldn't destroy her to save myself, but could I to save my friends. I knew they would do anything for me. If I didn't kill her, we would all die, and so would Earth's last hope. With one mighty swing I connected with her head, he neck snapped instantly. I fell to the ground. Then it began again. 

(Cassie) 

Jake pulled me toward him. "Don't die, god Cassie don't die. I'm sorry. I love you," he whispered in my ear. I held on to him with all my strength, trying to fight the force I could feel pulling him from my arms. "I love you too," I sobbed against his neck. I couldn't bear this, never seeing him again. Then he vanished. I turned and looked at the others, then the world fell away. I was in the yeerk pool, but I wasn't in morph I was in my human form. I was firing a Dracon beam at the controllers, then suddenly I lost it, it felt like I lost my soul, I could hear some distant voice calling me, but it was irrelevant. Nothing else mattered but killing my enemies. I fired at them crazily. Then at the last minute I saw someone. "No!" I screamed, I felt myself returning. Everyone was dead, even my friends; I had lost my soul and killed them all. I ran toward the bloody figure. Jake, he had a bloody burnt hole in his side. I knelt down and cradled his head in my lap. "Why? Why Cassie? I loved you." He whispered, then his eyes when blank. I folded in on myself, grasping him. I rocked back and forth, back and forth. Then something else started. Another battle, but different this time. I was a controller. My friends were in a cage in front of me. Who to choose first? I heard a voice muse in my head, the yeerk. No don't choose any, please don't do this, use me, hurt me instead. I pleaded with her. She laughed insanely. Of course I won't torture you, you see you will torture them. You will torture him. The yeerk laughed and pointed the guards to remove Jake from the cage. They placed him on a table as, I screamed inside my head, then my hands picked up one of the sharp tools lying on a cart next to the table. I fought against it, and tried to bring it to my throat but I couldn't the yeerk was too strong. I screamed silently in my head along with Jake's vocal screams of pain. There were more and more battles, and I killed them again and again and again. And slowly I felt like I was loosing my mind. Then I remembered I remembered Jake's last words to me, the real me. "I love you," he had said. I clung desperately to that phrase as the horror continued. 

(Jake) 

I watched my friend's horror, silently crying inside for them, I felt their emotions, and saw what Crayak was trying to do. He didn't just want to kill them. He wanted to kill everything that they were inside, destroy what made them who they were. I don't know how long I was there, it felt like and eternity. At first I could feel that the Crayak was pleased, watching and glorying my friends terror, but slowly he began distressed. Something wasn't going as planned. There was a time slot, I realized. They had to survive for so long, then they won. And the time was drawing to a close; he hadn't counted on them being so strong. He thought that they would be destroyed quickly, their minds gone. But that isn't how it went. I could almost feel the clock ticking, and then it was over. My friends appeared in the room where I was, pale and shaking. The alternate Animorphs were there too, they too had faced their fears to save me, me someone they had never even known before this. But they were like us, and we would have reacted in the same way, unable to just stand by and see someone like Crayak win. Then I saw Cassie stand up. She looked up at the Crayak, without fear and said something. "I know what it is, why you hate us so much. It's because you fear us. What we, such powerless little beings are capable of doing, of overcoming. We're stronger than you realize, and with all your power we have something more than you. You with everything that you can do are incapable of understanding one thing, and that is why you destroy life, because you fear everything that you cannot understand. And the thing that you cannot understand is emotion. Oh, you can understand certain emotions. Hate, Anger, Greed. But not the most powerful ones, Kindness, Hope, Love," she said smiling over at me. "You hate us because you are afraid of us, because you cannot understand us, how we could be more powerful than you." She finished. I heard the Crayak's cry of fury, then I was gone, and we were sitting in the sand on the beach where we were before. It had felt like a million years had passed, but in reality it had probably only been a few hours. I could see the sun coming up. "Whoa." Robert said shakily. We all climbed unsteadily to our feet. "What I want to know, is how the hell we actually survived that." Marco said. "You don't know?" Cassie asked. He shook his head. "Think Marco, was there any one thing you grabbed onto through everything. One rock, so to speak." She asked. He frowned then his brow cleared. "Yeah, I thought about my mom, that someday she might be free." He said. Cassie smiled. "You see, how we survived is we each thought of something that made us strong, that kept us together, kept us fighting. One of our reasons to keep going." She said. I looked over at her, and I knew my reason. 

Epilogue 

(Jake) 

We had four days left of our little vacation. Our ordeal had happened a few days ago, but we were all still a little shaky, yet stronger for it. We had been relaxing, doing what the Ellimist had intended for us to do when we came here. It was night now. The sky was calm and clear. I was sitting in Robert's backyard, Cassie was with me. I wanted to ask her something; it had been bugging me for a few days. "Do you want to know what I thought of?" She asked. I smiled a little, she knew me so well. "Yeah, if you don't mind." I replied. She looked over at me. "I thought of you," she said simply. I smiled. "You were my strength and I was yours." I said softly. She smiled back and I closed my eyes, her hand tightly clasped within mine. 

The End 


End file.
